| The Trade Options At Small Forward Authored by Christopher Reina - February 16, 2009 - 11:34 pm
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The Blazers appear to have zeroed in on small forward as the position in which they need improvement, while also being an area where talent is available via trade.
The Lateral Move
John Salmons is being aggressively shopped by Sacramento despite an affordable contract ($5.5M and $5.8M next year and 10-11) and is easily having his best season on record, shooting 47.2% from the field and 41.8% from beyond the arc. But he is also 29 already and though he doesn't have a ton of miles on him, this is essentially the best John Salmons we will see and it won't last long enough for him to be peaking along with the core Portland has built.
The Unobtainable Dreams
Andre Iguodala may very well be the NBA's best player to have never been named an All-Star and is certainly having an All-Star season this year following his contract extension. He is a diet LeBron stat filler who has been improving as a shooter and plays excellent defense. There is virtually zero chance that Philadelphia would trade him.
Caron Butler and Tayshaun Prince are two other small forwards that fall into this category.
The Attainable Dream
Luol Deng signed a six-year, $71M contract during the offseason, which is already appearing inflated. Chicago has always been cost-conscious despite being a big market team and while they have heretofore loved Deng, no longer appear married to him. While not currently at the level of Iguodala, Portland would be buying at an extremely low price considering many felt that Deng would be the better player. Deng's regression has been largely mysterious and I think a lot of it is as result of Chicago's lack of any real interior scoring presence. He would fit perfectly as Portland's small forward and is younger than Brandon Roy, as he won't turn 24 until April.
The price to acquire Deng would be very steep and since Jerryd Bayless wouldn't be included because of Derrick Rose, it would likely take some sort of combination of Travis Outlaw, Nicolas Batum or even Rudy Fernandez.
If Kirk Hinrich were to be involved, Portland would be setup with luxury tax hell until the summer of 2012. But he is an upgrade over Steve Blake and would allow Bayless to develop at a slower rate.
The Reality
Richard Jefferson is the player at small forward that is simultaneously in play and is a true upgrade. He will turn 29 just before the draft and so he will be in age-related decline, if not gone, during Portland's expected peak. But he should bridge the gap between the present and Batum/Martell Webster's prime and won't cost the Blazers any key elements of their core since the Bucks would like to shed Jefferson's salary in order to have greater financial flexibility in re-signing Charlie Villanueva and Ramon Sessions; this makes his value addition as a possible greater net gain than the Deng scenario.
Portland eventually needs to consolidate some of their depth to strengthen a solid eight-man rotation, but delaying that consolidation will allow Pritchard to make a more informed decision on who to shed and who to keep.
His overall field goal percentage is down this year, but his 3-point shooting is up to over 41.0%, which fits into Portland's system. He can also slash, plays a solid wing defense and fits in with the club on a character level.
Update: The Blazers have also reportedly zeroed in on Gerald Wallace of the Bobcats, who has been hurt since late January. Wallace is two years older to the day than Roy and is explosive to the rim and the lock down perimeter defender necessary to guard the Kobe Bryants, Manu Ginobilis and eventually the Kevin Durants of the Western Conference. His contract makes him less valuable to the Bobcats than he would the Blazers and represents some of the age-related upside of Deng and Iguodala while his trade value is significantly less costly.
- Chris Reina is the executive editor of RealGM |
